Foffa Bikes

I am all for someone making some money on restoring old bikes - thats not the issue here - the whole point of forums like this is to discuss this kind of thing - if you are going to put a product to the consumer, you can expect it to be judged, rated and either praised or dismissed. There are as many threads bigging up guys who build bikes as there are slating them o here.

No one would begrudge anyone putting together a nice machine with decent parts and selling them at a fair price. Thats not the case here.

LFGSS - Saving People From Unipacks Ant Other Crap Since 2007™

Agreed.

RPM, my lawyer is on holiday so not suing this time!! Thanks for the tips, I will follow this up and owe you a beer.

Edscoble, you are right, someone told me it was about 100 to get brakes fitted on the Fuji but I spoke to Evans this morning and it's about 70. Still a rip-off though.

Whatfriend, thank you for pointing out the bent forks which I actually got replaced before the bikes got sold. It is true that it is not easy making a living doing what you are passionate about. I stuck my neck out 2 years ago when I quit my boring office job and although the margins are not as high as people think, I love what I do and will continue doing so and try to learn from everything good and bad that people have to say about our bikes.

As far as the bespoke issue is concerned, just to clarify I do offer all sorts of options for those that can afford Philwood hubs and Aerospokes but most of my clients are just after a simple commuter and are happy with the standard options. It seems that some people here are sensitive about me using the word 'bespoke' so if anyone has a better word for it, let me know.

Edric64, as I seem to be the only person struggling to get hold of old racers for cheap, could you please let me know about the large jumble sale you mentioned earlier?

Lenni, thank you for being fair! I’d like to make up for you not being happy with the bike, so pop round the shop and I’ll be happy to give you a set of Halo TwinRail tires or something else.

Velocio, just so you know Ian has made the millions through a lot of hard work in the retailing business, not in fact the bikes business, and lost them all due to some very unfortunate circumstances. And I respect a guy that has lost everything before and wants to try and make a living to survive.
Anyway, I can't be responsible for what he says and all the mess that has been caused in your forum, but I'd like to apologise if anyone has been offended.
I have had a serious word with him and asked him for no more pseudo-legalese rubbish to be sent to anybody.

Again, I would like to thank everyone on the forum that have supported me and that have given me some good constructive criticisms. I suggested to my lawyer to stay on holiday as I am sure we can resolve this in a friendly way!

By the way, I really hope I haven't offended the MG owner's club and if I have, please accept my apology!

Well, I can't help but be a little bit impressed by your calm and polite response.

^ Yeah, much respect Dani.

+1 Dani. Good answer.

+2 Dani, nice response.
Maybe 'custom' instead of 'bespoke'? Just a suggestion.

another 1+ while Ian have the personality of a enraged schoolboy, Dani have a good polite business-like response.

+n
but... i'd still say that your bikes are gash and overpriced so they'd still be in antiporn for me. anyway, good response and maybe they'll get better

Yup. Dani is showing mucho grace and doing him and his business good... Ian's rage and fury on the other hand just do damage.... bull in a China shop thing.

+lots to Dani.

Well, I can't help but be a little bit impressed by your calm and polite response.

Another +1 here

Yup. Dani is showing mucho grace and doing him and his business good... Ian's rage and fury on the other hand just do damage.... bull in a China shop thing.

+lots to Dani.

???

Don't see any fury

have I missed something ?

I can find really old references that you posted but they don't make any sense.

Ian - Hacked2

he deleted his post.

fixei is probably just an alias or a crony. signed up today.

fixei is probably just an alias or a crony. signed up today.

Yeah, he's an alias.

Ian is Hacked, hacked2, fixei... I should probably just merge and undelete all of his posts. In fact, if he persists in being a dick and then trying to cover it up through deletion I will do precisely that.

Ian, if you're reading this... act decently in the first place and you'd be fine.

Calm and reasoned response, indicates a professional attitude: now appply it to the product.

It takes balls to admit when you are wrong, taking note of constructive criticism and acting on tihis means that your company can only improve - my only concern was/still is overpriced substandard bikes...

good luck on keeping the old boy on a leash ;)

Respect to Dani for engaging in debate - however i cant help but feel that you give off a certain naivety, that i dont quite buy - anyone who has been doing what you have been doing for the last couple of years should know damn well that the prices you have quoted for parts are utter crap.

I just cannot believe that you have only just become aware that Brakes arent £100, and and as for cheap frames if you looked on here you would find em, let alone before you bothered going to the many bike jumbles up and down the country.

I am all for you making a success out of your business, and your new frames look decent quality and a step in the right direction, but please dont pretend that you arent aware of exactly how much the parts you put on your bikes are worth. If you advertised these bike as nice bikes at a value price, rather than bespoke classic restorations, i am sure you would get a lot more love.

Respect to Dani for engaging in debate - however i cant help but feel that you give off a certain naivety, that i dont quite buy - anyone who has been doing what you have been doing for the last couple of years should know damn well that the prices you have quoted for parts are utter crap.

I just cannot believe that you have only just become aware that Brakes arent £100, and and as for cheap frames if you looked on here you would find em, let alone before you bothered going to the many bike jumbles up and down the country.

+1.
Why does someone who has spent 3 years building singlespeed bikes have to goto Evans to get a price for fitting brakes?

As for the claims on the website that Ian MacPherson has made millions in the bicycle trade, really? Surely then he would be able to recognise such a flawed business model? As has been said so many times a restoration (be it bicycle, motorbike, car, furniture etc) is very rarely going to be worth anything near the sum of the parts.

Dani pointed out that the million Ian made wasn't from the bicycle trade.

I agree it's a bit worrying that you didn't realise that £100 is overpriced for a brakeset.

operor retineo non forensis liberi attero vos*[B][/B]
*

People are allowed to voice their opinions on the products on offer.

from what i gather he makes his business look bad all by himself, what you post on the internet is around forever, so don't go blaming david for your fathers mistakes.

and you seem to have some kind of desire to censor all bad things said about your products. which is naive and silly. especially as you are selling things to the possibly least consumer aware group. (i am assuming your target audience is 18-24 year old hipster art students).

just look at mario vaz's thread - that has the title "mario vaz resprays = rubbish". to my knowledge he still has a business and has not come on here to defend it.

my advice is to let dani do all the talking. all of it.

I am confused, Dani comes on and does a great job of smoothing the waters and then Fixei comes along and stirs it all up again.

Hmm . . . what has happened in your family has nothing to do with us, and is not our business . . . the simple point is that this is a bicycle forum, where we discuss bikes, and sometimes people come on here and tell stories about how they feel they have been ripped off, or think a certain product is not up to par.

The lesson to be learned here is that instead of threatening people who point out the failures of your product, take the criticism on board, improve the product, and we will be the first to spread the word.

None of these threads are personal attacks on you or your father or your family, they are discussions about a product you have put out that many feel to be substandard. That is the nature of being in business, and given you are no doubt aware of the quality of the product and the issues talked about in these threads, i dont think you can have much cause for complaint.

This thread seems to have turned into the Queen Vic.